U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, speaks at Vera House March 1.By David Lassman/dlassman@syracuse.com

Syracuse, NY - U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei said he is ready to get on a plane at a moment’s notice to vote for a reasonable, balanced plan to end the threat of sudden, across-the-board budget cuts in Washington.

“The only thing that’s unforgivable is not to do anything about it and just to allow it to happen and to throw up our hands,” Maffei said Friday in the district after a press conference on a different topic, the Violence Against Women Act.

President Barack Obama spoke to reporters earlier today after meeting at the White House with GOP House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. It yielded no immediate results.

The meeting Friday was the first the two sides have had this year on the budget battle, and it lasted under an hour. Asked whether he couldn't get the parties in a room and stay there until they reach a deal, Obama noted that McConnell left early to catch a plane.

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks to reporters in the White House briefing room in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following his meeting with congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts.AP

"I am not a dictator. I'm the president," Obama said. "I can't have Secret Service block the doorway."

Maffei, D-DeWitt, was disappointed to hear the leaders seemed to be done for the day.

“I just don’t understand why the president and the Congressional leaders haven’t shown more urgency,” he said. “I would lock up that White House and not let them out until they had a deal.”

Maffei said he expects job loss, government furloughs and program cuts to happen slowly, like turning off the water a mile down the road.

Because he was at Vera House, he used domestic violence programs as an example. He said 36,000 domestic violence victims nationwide could lose services.

“Does that mean immediately you’re going to see something close? No,” he said. “But that’s just one example.”

The New York Air National Guard employees would switch to a four-day work week sometime after April 1 and continue through the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30.

“It’s easy to just sit back and say let’s just let it happen. But these cuts are arbitrary. We need more cuts, but we need to do it in a balanced way and a thoughtful way and that’s not what this does,” Maffei said.